This Monday marks 20 years since the American invasion of Iraq which led to the fall of Saddam Hussein’s regime. The dictator was tried by a special Iraqi court before being executed. Rizgar Mohammed Amin chaired it. He delivers his version, for the first time in a French-speaking media.
At a cafe in Erbil, capital of the Kurdistan Regional Government in northern Iraq, Iraqis line up to take a photo with former magistrate, Rizgar Mohammed Amin. It was he who was put in charge of leading the trial of Saddam Hussein 20 years ago. He’s a star here. The videos where the judge, during a tempestuous trial, stands up to the former dictator, who ruled Iraq for 23 years, marked the country.
“When he got angry I didn’t feel badrecalls Rizgar Mohammed Amin. For any defendant, it’s a mental shock. You have to put yourself in his place. The judge should not get angry. Saddam Hussein had things to say and he had the right to defend himself.”
“He was a president who had lost his power at that time. He was a citizen like the others.”
Rizgar Mohammed Amin, president of the special court that tried Saddam Husseinat franceinfo
Inside the courtroom, it is often chaos. Saddam Hussein and the other dignitaries of his regime shout. They do not recognize the legitimacy of the court. But outside, disorder reigns. Baghdad is still under American occupation. “From this period of the trial, I have a strange memory. There was no security in the city. The streets were dangerous. Al-Qaeda was very present, their men killed people or kidnapped them, they burned cars .”
interference
Four months after the start of the trial, Judge Rizgar resigns and denounces interference. “It was the Iraqi political partiesthe Minister of Justice himself and sometimes the Americans, he explains. It went through phone calls, press articles, or official letters, sent directly to my address. They asked me why I let Saddam sit down, drink water and have paper and a pen.”
“They were asking me why I didn’t judge him faster to execute him quickly.”
Rizgar Mohammad Aminat franceinfo
Saddam Hussein will end up being condemned to death and hanged on the day of Eid. “Obviously, Iraq was not ready for this trial.believes Rizgar Mohammed Amin. The security of the country was not assured. The judges were neither neutral nor trained in international law. I am against the death penalty, for anyone. That goes for Saddam. His execution also created a real conflict between the pro-Saddam Sunnis and the country’s Shiites”. A conflict that will contribute to the emergence of Daesh in Iraq, years later.
For the first time in a French-speaking media, the story of the judge who presided over the trial of Saddam Hussein, at the microphone of Théo Renaudon.
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